Filling members are used mostly for direct energy exchange where the energy exchanging media are in direct contact without, for example, being separated by a wall. Examples of such direct contact conditions may be heat exchange in cooling towers, direct mass transfer between media in evaporation cooling shares in cooling towers or in stripping processes. Filling members may also be used in connection with reactions between media in chemical towers, biological reactions in drippers for waste water clarification, for separation processes in mist eliminators in cooling towers, for liquid distribution air supply members and similar applications.
DE-PS 27 88 257 discloses a filling or packing member in which sheetlike foils formed in a wavy manner are situated with respect to each other and combined into a filling member in such a way that the segments, which are directly adjoining in the layering of the foils, contact one another.
Filling members with flow ducts whose axes have a three-dimensional course are also described in EU-OS 03 61 225, DA-AS 17 19 475 and DE-PS 10 59 888. CH-PS 556 010 describes a contact member for mass transfer, especially thermal transfer between a fluid and a gaseous medium. The contact member is fabricated from identically shaped trickling panels which are deformed in a trough-like manner. The panels consecutive within a package are situated so that the wave trains of adjoining panels cross each other. Wave troughs and wave crests or wave ridges of adjoining panels contact one another only in a point-shaped manner. These wave troughs and wave crests or wave ridges are flattened, segment-wise across their length so that if the trickling panels are assembled into a package, the wave troughs or wave ridges or adjoining panels can be connected with each other only in a portion of these crossing points or crossing regions. When viewed in horizontal direction, a slit-shaped opening, continuous in cross-section over the entire member appears whose effective course, however, is not slit-shaped. This slit-shaped view of the opening results only from vertical projection. In reality the course of this transverse channel is extraordinarily complicated. In previous trickling members, the liquid medium is supplied from the top side, while the gaseous medium flows through the contact member essentially transversely to the supply direction. The measure described reduces considerably the pressure loss of the flow-through medium, and reduces the flow resistance. An open channel is created in transverse direction, through which the gas can flow freely. Whether free flowing gas can considerably assist in the mass or energy exchange, however, is dubious, because the flowing gas is provided free passage and must no longer pass through the trickling member of this construction along a widely intertwined or sinuous path. The flow resistance will, without doubt, be considerably reduced by the described measure. The efficiency of this contact member will, however, be equally considerably reduced.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an efficient filling member.
Another object of the invention is to provide a filling member in which the flow resistance will not be considerably reduced.